Atlanta—home to ASPA's 2017 Annual Conference—was the site of this past weekend's winter leadership retreat. National Council members and other ASPA stakeholders met under the leadership of President Maria Aristigueta and President-elect Susan Gooden to review progress made toward advancing ASPA's strategic plan and brainstorm next steps.

"We've made tremendous strides in several objectives within the strategic plan," Gooden noted at the beginning of the retreat. "The point of this meeting is to make sure we're positioned to continue our progress and meet these and other objectives in the next couple years."

More than 15 leaders, including Vice President Janice Lachance and Vice President-elect Jane Pisano, were in Atlanta for the discussion. Participants used the two-day retreat to share ideas on how to best position the Society within its membership, as well as with the broader public policy and administration community.

The group discussed a wide range of priorities outlined in the plan, including:

Strengthening relationships between ASPA's national office and Chapters/Sections in the field

Continuing to strengthen member benefits—like webinars and BookTalks—beyond access to the Annual Conference

Ensuring a larger percentage of student members transition to full members as they become public administration professionals

Better communicating ASPA-led publications and research to the broader public administration audience

Positioning ASPA to advocate on behalf of those who serve the public good in front of wider audiences and through new and strengthened partnerships

Attendees also sought to better define National Council members' roles and responsibilities related to the strategic plan to more effectively serve the membership.

ASPA and National Council president Maria Aristigueta are pleased to announce that Washington Governor Jay Inslee will provide opening remarks at the 2016 Annual Conference, March 18-22 in Seattle.

Gov. Inslee was elected as Governor of Washington in 2012 and has a reputation for defending the environment, a clean energy economy and advancing job creation in Washington State. His remarks are certain to focus on public administration's current challenges and opportunities, while emphasizing the value of public service. He'll share the stage with Maria and conference co-chairs Sandra Archibald (University of Washington) and Jeremy Hall (Rutgers University).

The list of super panels has also been released, to be presented throughout the five-day event. Topics will include:

Public-Private Partnerships

The Role of Public Service in American Universities in the Future

Trust and Perception of Government

Collaboration Across Boundaries

Using Evidence to Improve Performance

Smart Cities Initiative

Both Collaboration Across Boundaries and Using Evidence to Improve Performance are in partnership with the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), and all of these panels will help inform the ongoing dialogue surrounding the joint ASPA-NAPA Advising Leaders project. This project will create papers to help inform the Presidential transition in the United States in 2017.

Are you looking to spotlight your Chapter, Section or university? Consider hosting a reception at the 2016 Annual Conference! Space is still available on Sunday and Monday evenings, March 20 and 21.

Hosting a reception—open to all conference attendees—is a great way for the more than 1,200 attendees to get to know your group. It's also a great way for current group members—or alums—to meet up with each other, network and learn more about what their peers are doing within public administration.

Plans are firming up for the conference and it will soon be too late to reserve space. Contact ASPA Events Manager Asmait Tewelde at 202-585-4306 to schedule your reception!

The New Year has begun and the first of ASPA's professional development webinars will take place next week! Here's a line-up of January's webinars. Make sure you register today for the topics of most interest, and visit our website to take a look at upcoming webinars and BookTalks.

There are different perspectives and views on resumes—what should be on them, what shouldn't, how long they should be, what they should cover, to name a few. The answers you get depend on whom you ask. What can’t be disputed is their importance. This webinar will outline the rights and wrongs to resume-building so you're ready when the time comes!

Hosted by The Intersector Project (a nonprofit organization that seeks to empower practitioners in the business, government and nonprofit sectors to collaborate to solve problems that cannot be solved by one sector alone), this webinar is designed for public administrators who are interested in learning and discussing successful strategies for cross-sector collaborations.

"Leading & Innovating with Meaning, The OPA! Way," offers a proven formula, enlightened pathways and practical techniques on the emerging hot topic of "meaning." The book, and this discussion, examines how public administrators can find deeper meaning in what they do, meaningfully engage with those with whom they work and serve and build organizations that make a positive, meaningful difference in the world.

Did you know that ASPA Sections publish 15 journals throughout the year? While some are bigger than others, these journals and their research provide tremendous benefits to ASPA members and their focus areas. Journals and their related Sections are as follows:

American Review of Public Administration
Section on Public Administration Research

Complexity, Governance and Networks
Section on Complexity and Network Studies

Criminal Justice Review
Section on Criminal Justice Administration

International Public Management
Section on International & Comparative Administration

Journal of Health and Human Services Administration
Section on Health and Human Services

Journal of Public Affairs Education
Section on Public Affairs Education

Journal of Public Administration & Theory
Section on Public Law & Administration

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy
Conference of Minority Public Administrators

Public Administration Quarterly
Section on Professional & Organizational Development

State and Local Government Review
Section on Intergovernmental Administration & Management

Each journal has its own publication rotation, editorial board and policies regarding accepting submissions, so for more information about each of these journals, take a look at the Section list on ASPA's website and contact the Sections directly for more information. If you need help finding contact information, please contact our membership department for assistance.

Public Administration Review, the premier professional journal in the field of public administration, will publish a symposium entitled Coping with Policy Complexity in the Globalized World, featuring the best papers presented at the HKU-USC-IPPA Conference on Public Policy. Guest editors for the symposium are Professor Wai Fung (Danny) Lam, Professor B. Guy Peters and Professor Shui-yan Tang. Papers submitted for publication will be reviewed using PAR’s rigorous peer review process. Theory-driven, empirical or practically relevant research papers are welcome.

The HKU-USC-IPPA Conference on Public Policy will take place June 10-11, 2016, in Hong Kong. The Conference is co-sponsored by the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Hong Kong, Sol Price School of Public Policy of the University of Southern California and the International Public Policy Association. The deadline to submit paper proposals is Jan. 30, 2016. To submit your paper proposal and to find out more about the conference please visit the website.

The 5th Global Conference on Transparency Research (GCTR) will take place at the University of Limerick, Ireland, June 19-21, 2017. The GCTR is the preeminent conference bringing together leading scholars from throughout the world to collectively advance our understanding of the impact and implications of transparency policies that involve governments, either directly or indirectly. The 2017 conference will be jointly organized by the University of Limerick and the University of Baltimore, U.S., in association with the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Makarere University in Uganda. A call for papers and registration details will be announced in the coming months.

Applications are now being accepted for the $100,000 Innovations in American Government Awards. Offered by Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, the Innovations Award is the nation's premier award for the public sector and recognizes programs that demonstrate creative and effective government at its best. All units of government—federal, state, local, tribal and territorial—from all policy areas are eligible to apply for recognition.

Additionally, the Ash Center is again offering the Roy and Lila Ash Innovations Award for Public Engagement in Government, a special Innovations Award that will recognize government-led programs that demonstrate novel and effective approaches to increasing public engagement and participation in the governance of towns, cities, states and the nation. The winners of the Innovations in American Government Award and the Roy and Lila Ash Award will each receive a $100,000 grant to support replication and dissemination activities in 2017. Applications and additional information are available online. All applications are due April 15, 2016.

The International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS) and the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA), in close collaboration with a consortium of institutions under the aegis of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, will organize the 2016 IIAS-IASIA Joint Congress to be held Sept. 20-23, 2016, in Chengdu, PRC. The congress will bring together academics, practitioners, Ph.D. students and young researchers in public administration and management, as well as contributors from any other disciplines, who will exchange on the theme, Building Capacity for Sustainable Governance. Calls are open for workshop papers, working group papers and general proposals. All abstracts are due Jan. 31, 2016; proposers will be notified of acceptance in March.

Nominations are currently being accepted for 2016 SWPA National Awards for Leadership, Service and Scholarship. Anyone can nominate an award candidate. SWPA recognizes admirable women in the following prestigious award categories: Marcia P Crowley Service to SWPA Award, Rita Mae Kelly Distinguished Research Award, Joan Fiss Bishop Leadership Award and Julia Juanita Henderson International Award. Find more information about these awards and nomination materials, including a list of past winners, visit the SWPA website or contact Awards Committee Chair Hillary Knepper.

SWPA is also accepting applications for its scholarship program. The Section annually awards up to three $500 scholarships in three categories—Practitioner, Masters student and Ph.D. student—to help defray the costs of attending the ASPA National Conference. To apply, please complete and submit the SWPA scholarship application form along with a cover letter, vita or resume and two letters of nomination/recommendation (from faculty, supervisors/managers or ASPA Chapter or Section officers). Obtain application forms on the SWPA website or request them directly from Scholarship Committee Chair Nicole Rishel Elias.

All nominations and applications are due via email by Jan. 19, 2016. Please specify the relevant award or “scholarship” in the subject line of your email.

Research SynthesisMichael McGuire, Editor
Public Service Motivation: A Systematic Literature Review and Outlook

Over the past two decades, research on public service motivation has seen rapid growth. Despite the relatively large number of publications to date, no systematic research overview has been created, leaving the body of literature somewhat unstructured and possibly hampering future research. Adrian Ritz (University of Bern, Switzerland), Gene A. Brewer (The University of Georgia), and Oliver Neumann (University of Bern, Switzerland) fill this void by providing a systematic literature review of 323 publications that examines six key aspects of the literature on public service motivation: the growth of research on the concept, the most prominent studies based on a referencing network analysis, the most frequent publication outlets, research designs and methods, lines of inquiry and patterns of empirical findings, and implications for practice drawn from the publications in the study sample. Strengths and weaknesses of the existing literature are identified, and future research directions are proposed. Link to PAR Early View

Research Articles
The Domestic Use of Drones: An Ethical Analysis of Surveillance Issues

Drone surveillance can be regarded either as a justifiable, impartial practice serving the interests of all or as an oppressive technique catering to the interests of some at the expense of others. Jonathan P. West (University of Miami) and James S. Bowman (Florida State University) weigh the ethical prospects and problems in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles by asking whether surveillance of civilians is ethical. To address this question, classical philosophical and modern behavioral approaches to ethics are used. The inquiry begins with the importance of the issue, followed by its evolution and current status. After describing the method of analysis, the article examines arguments for and against domestic monitoring. The unique utility of drones can accomplish much in the public interest while simultaneously creating moral hazards. The conclusion discusses accountability standards, model legislation provisions, and regulatory criteria for aerial vehicle surveillance. Link to PAR Early View

Performance Measurement and Cost Accounting: Are They Complementary or Competing Systems of Control?

In the public administration literature, research on performance measurement has recognized the important place of cost accounting in relation to performance. Extant research, such as the North Carolina Benchmarking Program, supports the proposition that performance and cost accounting naturally complement each other to increase trust in performance information and increase organizational learning. Other statements about cost accounting suggest that performance measurement and cost accounting compete as systems of control. Zachary T. Mohr (University of North Carolina at Charlotte) uses general cost accounting plan information and performance measurements in the budgets of large U.S. cities to test the competing and complementary control relationship at the organizational and service levels. He finds that performance measurements and cost accounting are negatively related at the service level, which supports the competing control system hypothesis. At the organizational level, performance and cost accounting are positively related but not at traditional levels of significance. Link to PAR Early View

Five Ways to Make a Difference: Perceptions of Practitioners Working in Urban Neighborhoods

Catherine Durose (University of Birmingham, United Kingdom), Merlijn van Hulst (Tilburg University, The Netherlands), Stephen Jeffares (University of Birmingham, United Kingdom), Oliver Escobar (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom), Annika Agger (Roskilde University, Denmark), and Laurens de Graaf (Tilburg University, The Netherlands) respond to and develop the fragmented literature exploring intermediation in public administration and urban governance. They use Q-methodology to provide a systematic comparative empirical analysis of practitioners who are perceived as making a difference in urban neighborhoods. Through this analysis, an original set of five profiles of practitioners—enduring, struggling, facilitating, organizing, and trailblazing—is identified and compared. This research challenges and advances the existing literature by emphasizing the multiplicity, complexity, and hybridity, rather than the singularity, of individuals perceived as making a difference, arguing that different practitioners make a difference in different ways. The authors set out a research agenda, overlooked in current theorization, that focuses on the relationships and transitions between the five profiles and the conditions that inform them, opening up new avenues for understanding and supporting practice. Link to PAR Early View

The Impact of Public Branding: An Experimental Study on the Effects of Branding Policy on Citizen Trust

Branding has become common in the public sector as brands are increasingly used to influence citizens’ associations with public organizations and public services. Using experimental research replicated in three European countries, René Karens, Jasper Eshuis, Erik-Hans Klijn (Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands), and Joris Voets (Ghent University, Belgium) investigate the effect of using the European Union (EU) brand on trust in policies. Experiments were conducted among economics students in Belgium, Poland, and The Netherlands to test the hypothesis that adding EU brand elements to policies positively affects trust in those policies. The results show a consistent positive and significant effect of applying the EU brand to trust in the policies in all countries and for both policies included in the experiment—even in The Netherlands, a country characterized by a negative overall EU sentiment. These findings provide some of the first empirical evidence of the effectiveness of branding for public policy. Link to PAR Early View

Recovering the Craft of Public Administration

Public sector reform has rarely dropped off the political agenda of Western governments, yet the old craft skills of traditional public administration remain of paramount importance. The pendulum has swung too far toward the new and the fashionable reforms associated with New Public Management and the New Public Governance. It needs to swing back toward bureaucracy and the traditional skills of bureaucrats as part of the repertoire of governing. Roderick A. W. Rhodes (University of Southampton, United Kingdom) discusses the skills of counseling, stewardship, practical wisdom, probity, judgment, diplomacy, and political nous. Although these skills are of wide relevance, the article focuses on their relevance in Australia, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand. It concludes that the next bout of reforms needs to recover the traditional craft skills. It is not a question of traditional skills versus the new skills of New Public Management or New Public Governance; it is a question of what works, of what skills fit in a particular context. Link to PAR Early View

Every Tuesday and Friday, ASPA publishes a curated collection of original content that covers public service, management and international affairs.

For issues being published in the first quarter of 2016, we welcome submissions that focus on emergency management at national and international levels. Send us your submissions now! The deadline is rolling; contact us for more information.

Looking for interesting commentary on news events and contemporary issues? Check out the ASPA Blog, which features a collection of authors writing on everyday life from the eyes of a public manager, student and young professional.

Find your next career opportunity at publicservicecareers.org. This online job board is the perfect resource for making a career change or landing your first job in the public sector. It lists dozens of positions in academia, government and the nonprofit sector. Below are examples of current listings.